A number of different device management platforms exist including, for example, Dell's Cloud Client Manager. These device management platforms can allow a number of different types of devices, including, for example, thin clients, zero clients, tablets, and smartphones, to be monitored and managed from a single location (i.e., from the cloud). To allow this monitoring and management, a device agent is installed on each device so that the management server can communicate with the device agent to implement a desired type of monitoring or management. Such devices will hereafter be referred to as “managed devices.”
For a device to be managed by the management server, the device must first be known to the management server. The process by which a management server becomes aware of a device is referred to as discovery. Currently, this discovery process can be performed in a number of different ways. However, regardless of how it is performed, discovery is initiated from the client by configuring the client to register with and report to the management server. In an environment that includes a large number of devices to be managed, this discovery process can be very tedious and burdensome as it would require an administrator to manually configure each device to communicate properly with the management server. Alternatively, the individual users could be relied on to perform the configuration process themselves on their devices. However, this may result in additional difficulties since many users may not properly configure their device or may even be unwilling to attempt to configure their device.